


Start Over

by CarnivalofBrokenDolls (yourrhinestoneeyes)



Category: Gotham (TV)
Genre: Ed needs a placce to stay, Friendship, Gen, Oswald adopted Martin
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-11-20
Updated: 2017-11-20
Packaged: 2019-02-04 18:29:42
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,016
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12776859
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/yourrhinestoneeyes/pseuds/CarnivalofBrokenDolls
Summary: Ed missed a lot in the past year he'd been frozen and then living in the Narrows, apparently one of the things he missed was Oswald adopting a child.





	Start Over

Brown eyes alight with a confused curiosity stared at Ed. For the past five minutes now, these eyes had been looking at him, the small human they belonged to still hadn’t uttered a single word nor sound. Ed looked at the boy with his thick brown curls, he wore a custom-tailored suit that looked like it cost quite a pretty penny, and he wore a notepad around his neck. Almost like a lost dog with a collar containing a name and address. The staring made Ed uncomfortable and mildly frustrated, he hadn’t the slightest clue why this child insisted on staring at him as if he had grown a second head. 

“Oswald why is there a child in your house?” Ed called out, his voice echoing through the sitting room. He waited impatiently for the home owner to answer his question. The last he had checked Oswald had no living relatives or at least none that lived outside of Hungary. 

Finally, Oswald entered the room, cane tapping against the floor. He stood by the couch and looked from Ed who wore a severely confused and worried expression to Martin who simply just looked confused.

“Oh, I’m sorry Martin I should have told you beforehand, this is Ed Nygma, he will be staying here….at least until I find a place to send him off to or I find that Thompkins woman to take him back.”

Ed glared at him, “You didn’t answer my question, who is the little person?”

Oswald turned his attention back to Ed, tense annoyance filling him as he stared down at him.

“He is my son, well my adopted son.”

Ed opened his mouth to speak, no sound coming forth. He pointed towards the child who still was staring at him, but now was smiling as if he found Ed’s intense confusion funny.

“Son, you…..Why and how, why do you have a son?”

He had spent nearly a year frozen, put on display in a night club, and following that he’d spent two months in the Narrows. Ed wasn’t entirely sure at what point in this time that Oswald adopted a child, or even what would possess the shrewd man to want to care for a child. He watched as Oswald held his hand out, the boy immediately going to him placing his small hand in Oswald’s and smiling up at his apparent father. Ed got up from the sofa, he began rubbing at his temple, still confused.

“I don’t feel like how or when I got a son is any concern of yours.” Oswald responded looking from Martin back to Ed.

Ed noticed how he looked at the child with pride and love, his look turning to a scolding annoyance when he looked back to him. He momentarily pondered what happened to Oswald looking at him with kindness and pride, he supposed shooting him might have tarnished that. 

“You killed my girlfriend and stole my chance of possibly getting married, of having a family of my own, and now you have a son?” 

Oswald rolled his eyes. “Oh, please like you would have married that bubble headed girl. If you didn’t kill her then she would have grown bored of you and eventually gone off with somebody else.”

Ed emitted a sound of offense at that statement, he stepped closer to Oswald desperately wanting to argue with him, or even fight him. That was until he looked down at Martin, the boy once more was staring up at him curiously. Oswald had his hands on the child’s shoulders, his grip gentle yet protective. Ed looked back up to Oswald, his shoulders sagged, and he sighed.

“Can we perhaps not talk about her?” He asked, tone soft and defeated.

“Of course, I suggest we don’t talk about anything that happened that year.” 

Ed nodded in agreement, an awkward silence fell over the room. Ed smiled softly at the young boy.

“How do you feel about being a father, never exactly imagined you to be the parental type.” Ed questioned curiously.

Oswald smiled shaking his head. “I’m not, but there’s something different about Martin. Perhaps it’s because the first time I saw him he was attempting to set fire to his classmates’ belongings.” He chuckled, he brushed his fingers through the boy’s hair as he smiled fondly down at him. “It’s actually quite nice being a father, a bit terrifying as well considering the type of life that I live….He’s already been taken and nearly killed twice now, you’d think that would prevent me from wanting to have him around, but it hasn’t.”

Ed smiled sadly, he could see a strong difference in his old friend. There was no paranoid glint in sea green eyes, only this sort of loving pride buried beneath exhaustion. He could tell that he was tired, that for the both of them these past months had been quite wearing. 

“I’ll admit that I’m impressed, I never imagined that you could be this selfless.” 

“You never really knew me as well as you thought you did.” There was a soft sadness to his voice, some tired acceptance. He smirked noticing that Ed seemed confused by his words, confused at the idea that he didn’t know the man he always claimed to be his best friend, the man he’d lived with for months.

“Maybe I could try to know you, we can start over new in a sense. I mean I’ll be here for a while and I could maybe help out with Martin.” He offered. 

“It’s a nice idea, I’m willing to give it a try since I am stuck with you for the time being. Maybe after I put Martin to bed for the night we can just talk, we can sort out where we go from here.”

Ed smiled feeling relieved, he’d never imagined he would be back in Oswald’s home. He never imagined there would be a chance to rekindle what friendship they had had before or some new form of it, but he was certainly more than happy to give it a try.


End file.
